3 Answers
3

Not every child develops at the same rate, and it may not indicate a problem if your child is behind on one or two milestones.

Most children do speak 5 or more words by 15 months. As I understand it, though, it isn't particularly uncommon for children to be a bit behind on this.

Perhaps more troubling is your statement that your son doesn't seem to understand anything you say, either.

Does he use gestures besides mimicking what you do? Does he point when he wants something? Reach for you when he wants to be picked up? Wave good bye? These are all forms of communication that are indicators to look for.

Warning Signs of a Possible Problem

If you're concerned about your child's speech and language development, there are some things to watch for.

An infant who isn't responding to sound or who isn't vocalizing is of particular concern. Between 12 and 24 months, reasons for concern include a child who:

isn't using gestures, such as pointing or waving bye-bye by 12 months

prefers gestures over vocalizations to communicate by 18 months

has trouble imitating sounds by 18 months

has difficulty understanding simple verbal requests

Even if your son is using gestures to communicate, you may want to mention his vocabulary to your pediatrician. Even if there is no cause for concern, it will provide more reassurance to hear it from a professional.

As for what you might do to help your son learn:
- first and foremost, talk to him. Use full sentences, and talk about anything and everything. Most of early language development comes from the child listening to adult speech. The more you say, the more he learns.

listen to what he says. When he babbles at you, listen quietly, then respond as if he had just said something very important. Make up in your head whatever you like for what you think he said. It doesn't matter if you pretend he was discussing politics or the events of the day, but responding as if he said something meaningful models conversational behavior, and helps in the learning process.

Read to him. The more you can read to him, the better. If he doesn't have interest in books, make up stories. Just so long as you are talking to him. The more he hears you talk, the faster he can pick it up.

Thanks. Do you know what the name of the service is?
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JD IsaacksDec 12 '11 at 15:54

@JohnIsaacks in Connecticut it is called Birth to Three, I am sure other states have programs similar to it. We used it for both our son and daughter, both of whom had different speech problems and found them very helpful and right on target in terms of their recommendation. Also, if you do need services they have a rolling pay schedule depending on your income, so it is a great program.
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morah hochmanDec 12 '11 at 15:56

I know this is an old question, but in case anyone else searches and finds it I'd like to mention that at 16 months a child who is using no verbal language, and which the parents suspect the child doesn't understand verbal language, is a definite cause for concern.

The best way to go about handling the concern is to contact your state (or county) Early Intervention program. Generally Googling:

city, state early intervention

Will yield the results you need. For example, the Early Intervention program for the OP's area is:

Early Intervention is provided free of charge to families in USA school systems as part of IDEA. They will assess your child in all areas of development and inform you of the results. Each program has different qualification criteria, some more stringent than others. An example of qualifying criteria would be 25% delay in one or more areas. So if the child is 16 months of age and scores an age equivalent of 12 months or below, that child would be eligible for services in that program.

Considering the specifics of the question, it would be remiss of me not to mention that the CDC recommends complete hearing evaluations every year for children with no risk factors for hearing loss, and every six months for children with risk factors (for example, language delay).